best remedy for earaches, colds or flu," I told Lucas' mother, "is to keep these diseases from developing. Let's learn how to prevent Lucas's illness, and find out how to keep him healthy." My words may seem ridiculous, because in our society everyone is used to focusing on treating an infection when it has already made itself felt, while we know almost nothing about how to prevent its occurrence. Antibiotics will likely eradicate the Lucas infection, but an important question will forever remain unresolved: what caused the disease to reappear, and how to treat what underlies it? By knowing the cause of colds, earaches, asthma, and allergies, we can go a long way in preventing the common cold and its accompanying illnesses.
Everything depends on the parents.
In my experience, many parents are not enthusiastic about taking their children to the doctor when they catch a cold because they are afraid they will be prescribed antibiotics again, as was the case with Lucas. More and more people are now finding out that taking too many antibiotics leads to more resistant types of bacteria, so pills are not always the best way to treat a child, precisely because of these side effects. I'm not surprised that many parents are reluctant to use antibiotics in their child's illness. However, we should not forget that antibiotics can save the life of a child in case of a serious illness, when a mortal danger hangs over him due to a bacterial infection. The bottom line is that antibiotics are good for certain kinds of infections and don't need to be prescribed too often.
If your child is sick, don't hesitate to take him to the doctor, just take him. It is wrong to refuse medical attention just because you think antibiotics are a bad treatment. If you don't want your child to take antibiotics, make sure you make the right decision.
The best adviser in this matter is your doctor or emergency physician. However, remember that doctors are not always right. Parents should go to the doctor armed with the right questions, and then agreement or disagreement with the medicines prescribed for the child will be based on a joint decision of the doctor and parents.
Feel free to ask your doctor questions about using natural remedies as alternative treatments. You're not alone: ​​42% of Americans use traditional or alternative medicine and spend $30 billion a year on natural health remedies. Most doctors won't be offended if you ask questions about alternatives. In fact, 52% of healthcare professionals already use traditional or alternative medicine to protect their own health.
Here are some common questions you could ask your child's doctor:
* Is this cold bacterial or viral?
• Antibiotics are only effective for bacterial infections.
*                      If my child does not take these medicines, what are the consequences?
• Make sure the medicines are absolutely necessary. Sometimes doctors feel that they should prescribe something even when the examination shows that the condition will improve on its own, regardless of the medications prescribed.
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•      ATсе больше doctors in case of mild diseases prescribe natural remedies. Parents can become a source of knowledge for doctors and an incentive for professional development. They have a desire to expand their knowledge if you come to them with similar questions.
* What are the side effects of these drugs?
• Each drug has a list of side effects set out in the instructions for use. The prescriber must know if the drug is contraindicated for any reason for your child and must ensure that it does not cause harmful side effects.
* Will taking this drug cause my child to be more susceptible to this or other illnesses in the future?
• Doctors know that medications can be excellent for treating symptoms of an illness, but also make a child more susceptible to the same or a similar illness in the future. That is why many doctors tend to use natural preparations.
*                                                                                  If we pass all these tests, will their results affect which treatment method you prescribe?
• Before having a few tests, it is important to know if the results will change your treatment decision. In the event that you are sure that a possible treatment is not suitable for you, or if the doctor writes a prescription regardless of the tests, you can reconsider your choice.
When looking for a doctor for your child, you need to ask yourself four important questions:
How individualized is the doctor's approach to solving my child's problem?
How does my child feel during appointments with this doctor?
What special equipment does this doctor use to treat my child?
How well is the doctor treating my child?
Be an educated customer.
Many doctors prescribe antibiotics without making sure that the disease is actually bacterial in nature. Taking too many medications, combined with the fact that many patients do not complete their prescribed treatment, leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Any bacteria exposed to and surviving antibiotics pass on the ability to resist to the next generation. Since bacteria reproduce very quickly and have a short generation period, they transfer this ability to thousands of other bacteria in an incredibly short period of time. Experience shows that one bacterium produces more than a million of its kind in ten hours. If a bacterium survives an attack of antibiotics, a million of its kind will have a huge advantage in a few hours. Continuing to take antibiotics will only make things worse.
Why do some people get infections and others don't?
There has been a heated debate about this for many years. Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard had their famous debate on this subject as early as the nineteenth century. Pasteur was the "father" of the theory of microorganisms in modern medicine. He recognized anthrax bacteria, argued for the need for doctors to wash their hands between meals, and recommended boiling (pasteurizing) milk to kill the microbes in it. Bernard is considered the father of modern psychology. He was convinced that personality type determines whether a person will get an infection or not. Bernard argued: "Diseases hover around us incessantly, their seeds are carried by the wind, but they will settle on the soil only if the soil is ready for it."
Bernard and Pasteur have been debating this issue all their lives. This war ended with Pasteur's confession on his deathbed: "soil, not seeds" is more responsible for the disease. Thus, he conceded the right of the winner to Bernard, saying: "I was wrong. Microorganisms are nothing. Soil is everything."
The soil is our own bodies, and the seeds are the harmful micro-organisms that inhabit our environment. However, to say that bacteria are nothing is not entirely correct. We have seen the power of microorganisms infecting us and spreading from person to person. We have seen the emergence of new diseases. The spread of SARS in 2003 is an example of how the disease spreads from person to person. However, even in the case of SARS, not everyone was exposed to the virus that causes the disease. Even here we observe the interaction of "seeds and soil."
The first thing we can do is to learn the basic rule: treatment, preventive or therapeutic, should be directed to the needs of the individual patient and not to the symptoms of the disease. Caring parents and doctors should not ask the question "How to treat this disease?", but should ask: "How is it better to cure the sick person?" The longer we focus on suppressing the symptoms, the more stable the disease will become, leading to more difficulty in effective treatment.
Second, by choosing to use antibiotics prophylactically against diseases like anthrax, we are likely to hasten the development of stronger and more resistant bacteria by killing off the weaker ones.
On April 3, 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine pointing out the alarming fact that about a third of all Americans carry Staphylococcus aureus on their skin and nasal passages. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of skin diseases. In addition, it is resistant to all currently existing antibiotics, including vancomycin, the most powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic. Antibiotics are completely ineffective for a viral infection, so it is very important to check with your doctor whether the disease is viral or bacterial. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a report reporting that 90% of common upper respiratory tract infections (for which antibiotics are most commonly prescribed) are essentially viral rather than bacterial. Some doctors don't like it when patients ask too many questions, so you should find a doctor you feel comfortable talking to. A good introduction can save your child's life, as happened to me once (see Chapter 9). Find a doctor who is up to date with natural medicine and can weigh the pros and cons of antibiotics and other common medicines. Doctors are becoming more and more literate in natural medicine these days, so keep looking for the right one for you. I have lectured on Ayurveda to more than 2,000 practitioners and know that interest in it continues to grow.
Homework for parents.
When the idea of ​​writing this book first occurred to me, we had already raised four children without using antibiotics, and our 8-month-old son did not know what drugs were either. It would be nice to write it down, I thought: how to raise children without antibiotics.
Through my experience with my children and young patients, I have learned how to you can help restore the health of children like Lucas. Part of the secret to success is to never say never... not even to antibiotics. As I said earlier, for each type of therapeutic treatment